OPEN THREAD: Discuss the new "undercover" Starbucks...or anything else coffee-related

A Seattle Post-Intelligencer journalist checked out the new "inspired by Starbucks" 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea in Seattle and followed up on claims that it's a clone of a neighboring business. "It looks nothing like it," she writes. Chat about Starbucks' new store concept, or anything else coffee-related in the weekend OPEN THREAD.

Comments

[CUZIMGON]

Does anybody know if there is any breakfast or coffee promotions coming up around September?

[Bearded Barista]

Wow, it's amazing how quiet this website can get after a couple days of positive news for Starbucks lol

[spence]

Maybe now, we'll attract more positive partners. There are a lot more of them than the whiney bitter ones.

[NJ_newbie]

I am happy with some of the recent changes...I think they need to get back to the heart of the business though, plain coffee...

Don't get me wrong, I love the occasional caramel macchiato, black tea lemonade, or mocha mint light frappuccino...but when my coworkers offer to go out and pick up coffee, they say my coffee drinks are "too high maintainance" to order. (I think it's simple enough, but these are DD guys...)

I have no problem getting just a grande drip with milk and sugar, but I hate the way Pike tastes...and God help my guys if I had to tell them to ask for a French Press of bold...

Other than that, I'm hopeful for the turnaround. I've always loved Sbux, but before and after working there...so I hope to see it back at the top of the coffee chain(s)!

[NJ_newbie]

**mind the typo** I meant I loved Sbux BOTH before and after working there. :o)

[sbuxvancouver]

Got a question about bananas...

Our SBUX store (in Vancouver, BC) sells them for $1 a piece. They sell super well. These are usually extra bananas that don't make it into the Vivannos. Anyhow, for a buck a piece for one banana, the profit margins huge!!! I think that it's one pricey banana.

Any partners in the US sell bananas at their store?

I am thinking that Starbucks should get into the fruit business and sell individual apples and oranges for $1 each.

[STARBUCKS GOSSIP WEBMASTER]

I noticed that the Starbucks Twitter editor has yet to mention 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea on his Twitter feed -- apparently playing along with the keep-it-quiet-that-it's-Starbucks game.

[spence]

sbuxvancouver,
We sell bananas all day for 90cents plus tax. They are far superior to any bananas we are going to find in the grocery stores around here. We have customers that come in just to buy a banana and nothing else.
PASTRY MORNING NEWS: I'm still amazed that people that came in for the free pastry are still coming back everyday. It's been our busiest week in a long time. Are some other stores seeing the same? Our SM actually offered two shifts over the weekend since we are below coverage and we anticipate a busier than usual weekend.

[smile]

We sell them at my store for 90 cents. A lot of times we have to go next store to fred meyer's to buy some (because we ran out of those that are shipped to us) and then we sell those for .90. They do sell, not a great amount, but they do sell.

[CoffeeMaster33]

I don't think they're keeping it quiet... It says all over the store "Inspired by Starbucks" and any semi-regular will be able to recognize most of the coffees as Starbucks offerings.

I do find the VIA packages for retail sale kind of out of place at the 15th Ave store...

[mini french press]

hey so I've heard people complain about their inability to find the double walled cold cup tumblers. so imagine my surprise when I walked into my local bux and found two ENORMOUS baskets overflowing with these mugs! are they going to be everywhere again, or what?

[Juan]

@coffeemaster33

I dare you to find any mention of Starbucks on the website

http://streetlevelcoffee.com/

[anon]

@Juan,

The website? The conversation is about the store, which clearly states Starbucks in several places.

As for the website, it does contain Starbucks trademarks (ex: Verona) so they should protect their trademarks by providing trademark registration information but it doesn't appear they are. However, WHOIS shows it's a Starbucks website.

Domain Name.......... streetlevelcoffee.com
Creation Date........ 2009-07-16
Registration Date.... 2009-07-16
Expiry Date.......... 2011-07-16
Organisation Name.... Starbucks Corporation
Organisation Address. 2401 Utah Avenue S, #800
Organisation Address. MS DOMAIN-1
Organisation Address. Seattle
Organisation Address. 98134
Organisation Address. WA
Organisation Address. UNITED STATES

[Nandypants]

What's up for fall drinks?
I always look forward to the pumpkin spice and such...any chance of my fave maple macchiato making a return?

[spence]

Good Job Anon. Also, not only do the list Verona, they have Yukon. No one else has a coffee named Yukon.

[brown dot]

mini french press

no dont get your hopes up that everyone will be carrying the double walled starbucks tumblers. Some stores just get freak shipments of them! Buy them when you find them!

[mini french press]

@brown dot: seriously? well then anyone who wants them, the sbux at radio drive and 94 in woodbury mn has an absolute BOATLOAD of these tumblers. Two enormous baskets chock full of the grande and venti sizes. Stock up!

[Kris]

We got a shipment of the Venti cups today. I put out all 16 of them and by the time I left an hour later we'd already sold five of them! I'm just curious as to how many of the people buying them are buying them to actually use or to sell on Ebay.

[smile]

Whenever we get a shipment of the cups, it goes within the day. People come in to check every single day if we have them. I heard they were no longer making venti ones...

[coffeemastah]

I think the Starbucks Twitter editor is just trying to give that store a little break from publicity. Besides, if they're serious about brand segmentation, why would they explicitly combine the brands?

[spence]

Re: Tumblers.
I bought one and brought it home. I had it less than 48 hours before my husband through it out with the trash.

[Melody]

Re: On the topic of publicity for the 15th Avenue Coffee & Tea: I know, I am absolutely sure of this, that Starbucks at least hoped or intended that the associated between Starbucks and the new store would remain on the down low and quiet much longer than it did. They hoped that the store would get some footing in the neighborhood before it would be huge news that it was actually run by Starbucks.

Through leaks, Starbucks made it very obvious to their competitors - small indy stores what was coming and so of course a SeattleTimes news journalist jumped on the story. From there, it's history and the story spread like wildfire.

Even if the words "inspired by Starbucks" didn't appear anywhere it would be so obvious to me that it's a Starbucks in new clothes. I look at the Whole Bean menu board and say, 'okay, that's a Clover Starbucks coffee line up' recognizing each coffee as a Starbucks coffee. Selling Via is huge tell-tale sign too! LOL

Several people on twitter asked me to write a whole review on the new store. I started writing several times and eventually got to something double the length of a typical Juan Valdez post. (this might be close)

So the bare highlights/comments go something like this (over both a morning and evening visit yesterday):

*** It was a kick meeting Arthur Rubenfeld. Boy he is a handsome guy! I had NO preconceived mental image of him at all and had no clue at all who he was until we talked. In fact at 6:30 in the morning, having been up since 2:30 due to a DUI beeper call, I was having a hard time remember 'now wait, why is this guy important?'

We had a great chat about store design and what one sees visually in the store. I picked his favorite seat in the house, and I had picked it because of the very reason he said he liked it - It's a corner with a perfect view of the bar and all the goings-on in the store. I mentioned to him about the old store 101 which I've complained about many times which you walk in and definitely looks like a neglected Starbucks. Very dull store design, not a single comfy chair, old Verismos, with great people running it. We also had a brief conversation about tall pastry cases. I’ve seen some Starbucks with pastry cases so tall that I feel like I’m talking to baristas’ foreheads. In particular, 505 Union Station in Seattle has that issue. (Are the absurdly tall pastry cases everywhere? I don’t recall having that problem when visiting Boston).

*** The barista in the blue shirt that everyone mentions is a totally nice guy that I know from a downtown Seattle Starbucks. He immediately greeted me by name, and I was happy to see him. I thought, 'no going incognito at this store!'

*** It was fabulous to see Major Cohen again. Of course I'm tickled pink to have bought the first pound of coffee from the store and the second person in the door. (Oddly, the first person in looked like a staged greeting). The French Roast was roasted on 7/19 at the Kent Roasting plant.

*** I was looking for a particular executive whom I wanted to see there, but she/he was not there. (I'm not referring to H.S.). The executives I saw were Cliff Burrows, Arthur Rubenfeld, and then of course Major Cohen was there. Still to this day I have never said anything at all to Cliff and never been introduced yet. I've seen him a couple of times. He always just looks way too busy. I'm not going to just interrupt him to talk to one customer.

*** Having a Beecher's cheese plate! (http://www.beechershandmadecheese.com) Beechers is a little tiny business down at Pike Place Market and they make the best cheese in the world! You can get a Beecher's cheese plate at the new store! It was like as if someone knew what Melody likes!

*** The Iced Chai drink: The store smells a bit like tea and coffee. The display of tea ingredients at the bar area looks like it came right out of the Tazo Tea training video (from the Tea launch video last fall) and the aroma is amazing. I kept wondering when Apurva would show up and remind us to smell the air and say ‘must be blending vanilla rooibos;’ and since the store is "repurposed" I looked for the Tazo Tea Stone perhaps hidden in a corner, but didn't find it. ;) ;)
On a serious note, the Iced Chai had remarkable spice and sweet flavor. It's not from concentrate. The barista who made it brought it to my table and said, "If it's not right let me know, It's the first time I've made one". I was sitting with a Starbucks barista/shift from Redmond, Wa store who commented to me, after we tried the drink, that she was impressed at what the barista said. She said too often in her experience baristas don't want to admit that it's their first time doing something and ‘let me know what you think ...’

*** I got to sign a cool guest book. There had been a media event the night before. I did not go and was NOT invited to the preview Thursday event (Yes, I am just a customer). But there had been a guest book largely intended for the Thursday night guests, and it was clearly being signed by invitation only, and I got to sign it. I think I might have been the only person on Friday morning offered the guest book.

*** Twittering with a London Starbucks partner who, my understanding is, is a VIP there. Being the first person to twitter with him about the new store, and he said he was jealous and wanted to see it! (And will in August).

*** The pastry selection/ food selection is arranged in such a way that it is hard to tell what is available. There is no pastry menu of any kind. Obviously it is not Starbucks pastries. I had a "bostock" (It was like cold crispy French toast with frosting). At some point someone said that quiche was available, and I thought "where was that at?" The pastry selection is all carbs and not enough savory stuff, and it's flat out hard to figure out what is offered.

*** Grande is as big as it gets. The largest size drink is 16 ounces. For cold drinks, I'd love to be able to get a Venti! They need bigger glass-ware. If you brew an iced Clover drink as a Grande, (8 ounces of coffee with grounds prepared for a 16 ounce drink) and fill a 20 ounce cold-to-go reusable cup up with ice, add a little syrup and a splash of half and half, no joke, the 8 ounces of coffee makes a 20 ounce delicious drink. I think I just need to start bringing my own tumbler.

Sorry for the length of the post. Now back to your regularly scheduled Starbucks Gossip programming

[Bearded Barista]

Anybody know what kind of beer and wine they serve there?

[seriously]

@Melody "The display of tea ingredients at the bar area looks like it came right out of the Tazo Tea training video (from the Tea launch video last fall) and the aroma is amazing. I kept wondering when Apurva would show up and remind us to smell the air and say ‘must be blending vanilla rooibos; I got to sign a cool guest book. There had been a media event the night before. I did not go and was NOT invited to the preview Thursday event (Yes, I am just a customer)." How can you be "just a customer" and be in on training videos?

[Melody]

@seriously - Let me answer you totally honestly. It's not hard at all. It's a very small world. Between in person, MSI, V2V, SG, and twitter, there is a lot of opportunity for connection with partners. And there have been, only just a couple of times, where I have composed an email or said in person something that goes like this:

"Hey I've been reading Starbucks Gossip and there have been a slew of comments about how funny the Tazo Tea Training DVD is. Now I'm dying to see for myself! Can I borrow a copy?"

And then someone might say back to me something like, "sure, I can burn you a copy of that"

I've never lied about who I am, or what my motivations are ...But yeah, from comments here, I was very interested in seeing the Tazo training DVD for a good laugh. (And yes, Apurva is kind of funny). It's worth watching!

Maybe the next 'undercover' Starbucks will manage to have a Tazo Tea Stone hidden away in it somewhere! LOL!!

And on the topic of Tazo tea, much to my surprise, today's cupping at 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea was a tea cupping! That's the first time I've ever even seen a Starbucks tea cupping!! I went with a friend and we both had a great time. I'm still soaking in this new store experience, and I will be back often.

[cobaltsd]

Since we are in an open thread today: I noticed that many baristas in my neighborhood still can't get the Chocolate Vivanno right. It's hard to complain though. Telling them it doesn't taste much like chocolate is a very vague statement. How many pumps of chocolate can I expect them to apply?

[mousie]

Hmm. Went to my "errand running" Starbucks this morning, where a partner told me they were no longer carrying the gluten-free orange valencia cake at that store. Are other stores ditching the orange cakes? I bought them three or four times a week, but never saw anyone else buying them. (also had several partners ask if they were any good, because they'd never tried one)

The blueberry oat bars are even better, so I'm not terribly heartbroken.

[BoldToday]

@ Bearded Barista:

I didn't get a good look at the wine list, but here is the bottled beer list:

Stella Artois; Redhook Brewery Blackhook, ESB, and Slim Chance; Widmer Bros. Broken Halo IPA; Alaskan Amber.

[soh]

Bearded Barista & Spence,

The positivity might just be a fluke like the numbers reported. Starbucks will never be able to keep it up because they have essentially the same management team, and they make the same decisions as they always have. The idiots at the top have been known to lie in the past, why believe them now. We are also losing or have lost thousands of good partners that helped build this company. The decline and fall of Starbucks hasn’t ended it’s just taking a break. Feel justified now after a few days of good news but don’t forget about the last 2 ½ years of catastrophic promotions, misguided business decisions, and corporate corruption. Sell your stock now because the company hasn’t changed at all, they’ve just slowed the inevitable collapse.

[JustOneBarista]

Off topic ...

I work at a store that still uses Varismos. For those of you who have worked with the Mastrenas for a while: do they really pull better shots? Are they a better machine or do they just look better?

[CamSpi]

JustOneBarista
It's really a personal preference. I like the shots better from a Mastrena. But I work with an employee who will stop by another store because she likes the Verisimo shots. She likes iced drinks, though. And I prefer hot drinks, which I think is why we have opposing opinions.
The Mastrena shots taste more velvety to me. Thick, smooth, and it'll coat your mouth with espresso. I like it a lot. And after the first week you get used to how it works. Your muscle memory for the Verisimo is going to initially make it tough, though.

[brown dot]

re tumblers

I live in So Cal so those stupid tumblers go like crazy. If one store gets them, it seems everyone flocks there and they are gone with in 5-6 hours!

[CamSpi]

Could someone explain the "Pour Over" method to brewing coffee.

The 15thAveC+T website says:

"A time honored tradition, the pour over is still the preferred method by many for the extraction control it offers. This method involves heating the water separately, then pouring the water over the ground coffee at the perfect speed to suit your taste."

I've never done this. Should I grind the coffee to fine turkish if I want to try this out? If you've done this, how does the speed of pouring water effect the taste? If its too fast, what's the effect? Too slow? How fast should I pour the coffee?

In the pictures of 15thAve I've seen, there is a wooden box with a drain at the bottom. Is this for the "Pour over" method? How does this contraption work?! Spill the beans, gossipers!

[SBUX Alum Bill]

To Spence, Bearded Barista & Others,

The quarterly earnings numbers were better than expected, causing the rally in SBUX stock. There were several things in the earnings release, however, that may indicate future trouble for SBUX:

1) The earnings surprise was fueled entirely by labor cost cuts. Those types of cuts always yield a short-term boost to earnings, but there are often costs later on. The savings in Q3 may be more than offset in the long run by erosion of customer loyalty due to declining levels of service. Time will tell, but many short-term rallies in response to layoffs have proven to be very short-lived.

2) The 5% drop in same store sales should be a concern, because 3QFY09 was comping against highly anemic 3QFY08 results. Remember that the sales decline in 3QFY08 was the steepest in the history of the company at that time.

3) The 5% drop in same store sales also came even though there were substantially fewer stores in 3QFY09 than in 3QFY08. One has to surmise that at least some of the business lost from the closed store was recaptured in the remaining stores, so one would expect positive comps for those remaining stores. The fact that this did not materialize (and that those remaining stores actually had a 5% DECLINE in sales) ought to be of great concern.

[Bearded Barista]

Wow, it just seems like some people don't like looking at a silver lining in a cloud. I realize that one profitable fiscal quarter doesnt mean that Starbucks is in the clear, but it's certainly better then it could be. I'm hoping that this could be a turn around point though, especially if the economy continues to improve, albeit slowly. Maybe I was just a bit psyched to see my shares go up in value though, lol

[BoldToday]

@ CamSpi,

Turkish is way too fine. A regular drip brew grind should be about right. The speed of pouring the water can affect the saturation of the grinds. Ideally, the ground coffee should be completely and evenly saturated; a steady pour in a gentle circular motion works well for me. Also, it helps to stir the "slurry" in the filter as it brews.

The wooden box thing is for making multiple, separate cups of fresh coffee. It's pretty simply, really. The top part, essentially a horizontal wooden board, has large holes in which the ceramic filter holders sit. A paper filter goes inside the ceramic filter holder, which has a small hole at the bottom for the coffee to pass through. The empty cup sits on a metal screen below and receives the coffee as it brews. After the prepared cup of coffee is removed, the filter may continue dripping until it is discarded; drops fall through the screen and are collected in a shallow pan below.

Basically, it's how drip coffee was made before the electric coffee maker came along. Enthusiasts and professionals often like pour-over brewing because most household coffee makers don't get the water hot enough for proper brewing.

[Mrs. Tillinghamshackles]

cobaltsd,

They should be putting 3 pumps of mocha sauce in your banana chocolate vivanno smoothie. if this is still not enough they should be more than happy to add extra for you!

[CamSpi]

Cobaltsd,
If you live in the DFW or Austin area, the mocha pumps require you to pump 6 times. Since the introduction of Customizable frappuccinos, they also created a new mocha pump. I've noticed a lot of baristas do not pump 6 mochas since the change.
AMBIGUITY!!!! :D

[SBUX Alum Bill]

@ Bearded Barista:

I don't totally disagree with you. It is obviously encouraging that Starbucks has finally exceeded earnings expectations. This moment could ultmately be remembered as the turning point, but I wouldn't uncork the champagne just yet. The encouraging signs that you've seen were driven solely by labor cuts, and the long-term effects of those cuts (if any) are yet to be seen. There are a lot of things that still have to be played out.

[Zach]

Hey Melody, check this out:

http://www.starbucksstore.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=222213

[Ira]

How is Starbucks responding to the minimum wage increase?

[cobaltsd]

Thanks, Mrs. Tillinghamshackles and CamSpi. I am in San Diego. The barrista I asked last week told me she is using two pumps. Guess I need to ask for an extra pump to get the regular amount. How come that there is so much confusion about the Vivanno? Do those smoothies have such complicated recipes compared to frappucinos? I mean, many get it right, but I'd say four out of ten use less than normal.

[WaSbuxMan]

Just a quick vent!

If you go into a Starbucks and use the restroom, please flush!

[me myself and I]

The thing with the Vivannos is, they changed the recipe. Unfortunately it now doesn't follow any typical Starbucks rhythms anymore. And some people just never read the updates and are still using the "old" recipe.

We keep running out of bananas and loose out on so many sales opportunities... :-(

[CamSpi]

@BoldCoffee
The "Pour Over" method is still confusing to me. Where do I put the filter? Should I still use the same ratio of water to ground beans as I would for anything else? How hot should I heat the water to? is it ready immediately... how long is brewing time?
:) Thanks for your answers so far! I love learning about coffee!

[BoldToday]

@ CamSpi:

This photo might help: http://bit.ly/2ywMYg

The paper filter goes inside the ceramic filter cone. Melitta and other brands sell both -- fairly inexpensive. I would start with the same ratio of water to coffee that you're used to, but you might end up playing around with it to suit your taste. Trial and error, basically. Water should be about 200 degrees Fahrenheit; bring it to boil, then remove from heat for a second or two, and it should be in the right range. Using filtered water is important. Brewing time is pretty quick, maybe two minutes, or as long as it takes for the water to seep through the grounds. It might help to measure beforehand or brew into a cup of a known volume.

This article from CoffeeGeek is a good intro: http://bit.ly/dZKd3

[venti bt 2s+l]

Just a general vent...I'm an iced tea drinker and get really frustrated that not all stores shake it. My regular store its never a problem, but the one near to my work and most others I need to request the tea be shaken...why is that? It says shaken iced tea on the menu. Thoughts?

[spence]

Venti bt2s,
There are a couple answers. The first one is the baristas are lazy. Hate to say it but it could be true.
Now, if a customer asks for a BT, no water or ice, then we can only show our distaste for cheating a company which is being kind with a subtle way of showing our customer that we are not happy with them. No shaking for that person.
And lastly, sometimes in a rush, the shaker falls in the trash and we need to get a new one. That happens about once a year.

[Melody]

CamSpi, I think you'll like the Melitta brew system. At home, this is the brew method my bf prefers the most! One time I blogged about going to an indy house in Seattle (Zoka's) and they use a "pour over" method for coffee nearly identical to what the new 15th coffee & tea adopted. I think it's a common brew option at indy coffee houses.

I went back to 15th Ave Coffee & Tea this morning, enticing a friend to experience a cupping. She liked the place and LOVED the cupping experience but it's totally interesting hearing others' thoughts on it. She said the theater seats were hard to get in and out of, and she thought it was weird that no prices were on the menu board.

Howard made an entrance at 15th C & T today. Looked around the place, talked to people. I was with 3 others, 1 of whom is a barista in Redmond. He spent quite a bit of time talking to her. Well, BostonStarbucksRebel, if you're reading this, I had only 30 seconds to say hello to him, and missed the opportunity to ask him how much longer PPR will be brewed in the stores? I was just too tongue tied and all that came out of my mouth in those 30 seconds was diarrhea of the mouth. That is so true. My brain is articulate, the tongue is not.

I don't know if anyone is interested in this, but I found this on you tube. Someone must've sneakily filmed in the store. Footage from a camera phone I assume inside 15th C & T:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL16RSocFxU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9hgZTMHMPY

This morning I saw a person wearing an exclusive Clover branded t-shirt. I was jealous! You all know that the Clover is the one thing that has really kept me in love with Starbucks during the PPR fiasco. For as much as I hate the idea of clutter in the store (this is very 2-faced for me to say this), I'd love the chance to buy Clover branded products whether it is mugs, t-shirts, or I don't know even pens.

At the quarterly conference call, Howard Schultz had said that Clover would be adding 250 Starbucks stores? Anyone have any idea what cities/markets?

And last but not least, I'm looking forward to Yukon coming back! Will it be brewed as part of the pick of the week coffees, I wonder?

[Mrs. Tillinghamshackles]

me myself and I,

I know that the recipe changed. However, the Banana Chocolate Smoothie STILL gets 3 pumps of mocha. Tall lines, only two scoops protein, but STILL 3 pumps. That was to address complaints of not enough chocolate flavor.

Most people make it wrong, with only 2, but if you get on the portal and look up the recipe, you'll see it's 3.